Many years ago while working my way through college, I became incensed by continuously escalating student fees on what was a “commuter” campus. Most of us were part-time students and the overwhelming majority of us had full or part-time jobs. The school was not our home and playground, as it seemed to be with the “professional students” under twenty-two, and we received little or no benefit from the student fees. In fact, much if not most of the fee money went to subsidize organizations or causes that we found objectionable. But every fee increase proposal was passed easily, in no small part due to the fact that the polls were open all day long, five days a week, and closed just about the time that most of us were arriving from work for our one-to-three times per week classes. And of course there was a small cadre of activists within the ranks of full time students who did all the campaigning in support of the student fee increase; usually the leaders of the organizational groups and causes that most of us would never have supported given the choice. They were less than two hundred in number, but they were the tail wagging the dog of an eight thousand strong student body.

            I decided to do something about it and made contact with the two students who were members of a national conservative youth group. I learned who they were by calling the national headquarters. Then I initiated a public meeting of that group under its national logo, and about half a dozen people showed up. We agreed to form an organization to oppose the student fee increase, and set out to get more people. Almost as soon as we began beating the bushes for more people someone came to see me to inquire about our group, and I remembered his name from a Letter to the Editor of the campus newspaper the previous semester. He was impressed that I knew of him and liked what he had written. He was the leader of a group of libertarians on campus, and our group tripled in size before he walked away. At our next meeting a Friar from a monastery that the campus had been built up around showed up, with his Right to Life group. They had heard that a conservative movement had sprung up on campus, and wanted to help as non-student activists, something the liberals use extensively. A week later a fellow with muscular dystrophy inquired if we would let him help. We said yes. Within a week he had recruited almost every handicapped student on campus to join us.

            On the ballot of the next student fee increase there were four options, 1) big increase in student fees to be distributed to all student organizations, 2) big increase for the leftist student organizations and moderate fees for all other student organizations, 3) moderate increase for all student organizations and 4) no student fee increase. The leftist activists campaigned strongly for option 2 because some non-radical groups didn’t have a need or desire for more money. 

But this time the activists had opposition. We named our organization the For Four Committee, and we campaigned for option 4) no student fee increase. 

The leftists went nuts. They had never been opposed before. They spent more time attacking us, than trying to convince students of the merits of a student fee increase. If we put up For Four posters before we went into a class, we had to put new ones up when we walked out of the class to replace the ones that had been torn down. We found out quick that every invitation to speak was an invitation to be subjected to a room full of heckling activists, or worse. We were called every epithet the leftist activists could think of when we walked down the hall. But when other students heard that we were the For Four Committee, they applauded. When the unusually large number of votes were counted, the activists became even more hysterical. We had won.

The liberal campus activists immediately cried "fowl" and demanded a re-election.  They were certain we had found some way to cheat.  After all, even though the For Four Committee had sprung up out of nowhere and now numbered over forty people, we were just part-time students.  They still outnumbered us by more than five-to-one.  And of course, they remained convinced that the majority of students supported their liberal causes, or would if they weren't ignorant.  They convinced the left leaning campus administration that the student body had been "confused", and the left leaning campus administration agreed to repeat the election.  The Chair of the political science department was instructed to put just one clearly worded question on the ballot, yes or no to increase student fees.

The election was repeated with only the yes or no question. The liberal activist groups put on a full court press trying to convince the student body of the value of funding radical political, economic and social organizations.  But by now the entire student body had become aware that it is possible to win against the campus liberals and they turned out in droves, many of them taking time off from work to come in and vote during working hours. The "stake in the heart" of the liberal activists was when an attempt to "adjust" the voting machines was stopped by the police, called in by a poll watcher in a wheel chair.  When the dust settled we won again, by an even bigger margin than the first time.